It’s a good time to be a vampire these days, with the success of the “Twilight” and “Underworld” film franchises. The Vampire Diaries and True Blood are huge moneymakers for their networks. NBC hopes to capitalize with a new take on Dracula, the most famous bloodsucker of them all.

They certainly got the first step right. The Tudors‘ Jonathon Rhys Meyers will play Dracula. He’s undercover in America during the 1890s. He’s portraying a businessman who wants to implement more technology in Victorian society. In truth, it’s part of his plan to eradicate humanity. Deep down though, Dracula just needs a little love. He encounters Mina, played by Arrow’s Jessica DeGouw. Believing her to be a reincarnation of his dead wife complicates things for Dracula.

Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong) gets the meaty role of Abraham Van Helsing. In this tale he’s a revenge-obsessed professor, described as possibly more dangerous to humanity than Dracula. Oliver Jackson-Cohen will play journalist Johnathan Harker.

The show is going straight to series at NBC, just like Hannibal. Both shows will run for 10 episodes. Hannibal Lecter and Dracula debuting in the same season? There’s your fall ad campaign, NBC.